Nagaraj had sought security cover before murder

Following the pre-meditated cold-blooded murder of Gandhi Nagar Corporator S Nagaraj (45), several issues that could have been addressed by the city police and probably avoided the tragic loss of life have surfaced.

Junior level cops from the jurisdictional police station disclosed that Nagaraj had approached their police station barely a week ago, seeking protection since he feared for his life. He was however denied the requested security because he failed to name or pin point any person from who he was allegedly receiving death threats.

According to the police sources as well as a seasoned MLA in the city, Nagaraj's attempts to warn the authorities that his life was in danger, fell on deaf ears.

"He had been receiving threatening phone calls and had informed the police about it. Based on these threats, he went ahead and applied for a gun license and even underwent training to use a gun. It is very disappointing that even when an issue is brought to the attention of the police, they never follow up," said Dinesh Gundurao, MLA, Gandhi Nagar Constituency.

Gundurao, who was Nagaraj's political mentor further claimed that he has been requesting police officials for better and proactive officers in his area, but all in vain.

He added, "I had requested the previous police commissioner and even the Home Minister to appoint good police officers in our area since it is a sensitive zone. They however just did not listen to me."

The MLA said that eight months ago when another corporator was murdered, no action had been taken against the murderers, which has emboldened criminals.

"After this incident, the cops have no idea who was behind the crime. A good corporator was murdered and his murderers roam scot-free," said Gundurao.

Soon after taking over as Commissioner of Police, B Jyotiprakash Mirji had made a statement claiming to take strict action against jurisdictional police officers if their area witnessed heinous crimes.

While Mirji remained unavailable for comment on this issue, Additional Commissioner of Police (law and order) Suneel Kumar said, "This murder is being looked into. We cannot go around suspending our officials just because a crime has taken place in their area. We will take action against our officials only if it is revealed that a crime occurred due to their negligence."

Confirming that the slain corporator had sought protection, Kumar said, "We have found out that Nagaraj had approached the department for protection and are looking into why it was denied to him. We want to ascertain if he had revealed what kind of threat he was facing and who was behind it. Unless we get details about the threat, we cannot go around providing protection to people."

Nagaraj's party members are claiming political vendetta is the motive behind his murder and the police are working hard to solve the mystery, which has generated a fear psychosis amongst politicos in the city.